Everybody has at least a little anxiety about retirement. Specifically, will we have enough money to get by? Many of us (me) don’t like to think about these things. Many of us (me) put off those icky decisions. But you (I) can’t put them off forever. And the sooner we start making good financial decisions, and taking action, the better off we will be.
And knowing what the right moves are starts what knowing what the WRONG ones are! That’s the topic of a recent Time Magazine article “9 False Moves That Could Derail Your Retirement”. Here are the bullet points…
Raiding Your Home Equity
Unplanned Roth IRA Withdrawals
Failing to Put Away Anything
Helping Adult Kids Financially
Co-Signing for a Child or Grandchild
Failing to Have a Plan B
Poor Investment Choices
Not Making Changes When Needed
Taking Social Security As Soon As You Can
Again, just the bullets. Lots more info at the original piece, so check it out! How about you? Are you making smart retirement moves, or not? Let us know over at the MndField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!
Rejoice! Yard Sale season is upon us! (Of course, if you’re in South Carolina like me, it’s been yard sale season since about February.) If you are thinking about having a sale this year to, you know, sell all the stuff you bought at last year’s sales, it would be helpful to know what items are currently in demand. It’s a drag taking the time to price and display a bunch of stuff nobody wants (believe me, I have done it!) So, what’s en vogue at garage sales this year? AARP.com has some clues, and here are the highlights:
Costume Jewelry
Like-New Items
Clothing by the Bag
Vinyl Records
Tools
‘Americana’ Home Décor
Books
Bottled Water and Soft Drinks
Beat-Up Wooden Furniture
Retro Toys and Dolls
Kid and Baby Clothing
Antiques
Seasonal Items
I didn’t see bicycles on the list. You know how many bicycles I have tried to sell over the years? No interest at all! Anyway, there’s more info at the original piece, including valuable info on pricing your items for quick sale, so check it out!
How about you? Is a yard sale or garage sale in your future? Do you have any success tips to share? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and happy hunting (and selling!)
Like it or not, you will probably spend some time this Memorial Day weekend in a big box store, or at the mall, or squinting at your computer screen while you look for bargains.
So we thought we would share some Memorial Day shopping do’s and don’ts, as presented by US News.com. Here are the bullets:
Do: Research
Don’t: Forget the basics: (bring the flyer or coupon with you, etc.)
Do: Buy appliances
Don’t: Buy summer essentials (Wait until AFTER the holiday)
Do: Find free shipping
Don’t: Get scammed (Memorial Day scams often target military or their families)
There are many more details at the original piece, so check it out!
Somewhere in this piece (okay, now) I feel obligated to say that Memorial Day is not about buying a new refrigerator. I mean, a refrigerator IS one of your best deals this weekend, don’t get me wrong! Just try to remember those who paid the ultimate price. Here is a good place to learn more about Memorial Day.
What do YOU think? Are you heading out for some retail combat? Having a cookout? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great Memorial Day weekend!
So, what’s the deal? Is retail in decline? Or is it a certain slice of retail that’s in decline? The answers, it seems, are maybe and definitely.
Once again, the arrow points straight at the Millennials – people born since 1980 or so. They are becoming the dominant purchasing force in the economy – and they simply have less money to spend. Their money is going toward RENT, which is very high right now, and toward personal electronics.
The money they have left over is not going toward a $40 shirt at Kohl’s or Macy’s, or locally sourced/organic/free range/sustainable/expensive salmon at Whole Foods. They’re going to Walmart instead.
So, this might be troubling news for higher-end retailers, but maybe a good thing that the younger generation (which will soon be calling the shots) is getting smarter about spending? Maybe? I guess? What do YOU think? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!
When I think of “Future Shopping,” I think of George Jetson trying to give his wife a twenty, but she takes the whole wallet instead! Anyhoozle, there’s an article in the Wall Street Journal on the future of shopping entitled, oddly enough, The Future of Shopping. The basic nugget o’ wisdom goes like this:
Thirty years down the road, much of the change in retail is going to be driven by a complete reformulation of the relationship between how we make the stuff, how we sell the stuff and how we consume the stuff.
Here are some of the predictions:
Malls become “Alls”: I can remember our mall back in the 70s had not one, but two grocery stores in it. That seems ridiculous now but, apparently, it will be coming back. Aside from clothing, food and electronics, you will see “gyms and innovative fitness centers, medical services and even schools, grocery stores and luxury spas”.
Artisanal everything: Handcrafted clothes, furniture, foods, etc. “This is about the counter trend of being local. It is about a need to be different and nostalgic for things that are timeless and somehow pure.”
Highly personalized clothing: Super-precise tailored measurements for clothing made immediately by robots. They’re already doing it in Korea!
A Different Kind of “Mobile”: They’re doing this in Charleston SC already. There’s a restaurant on the well-to-do/upscale tourist part of town. They have long waits, so on weekends, this truck full of upscale ladies apparel/accessories parks outside the place to take advantage of the captive. (“Go ahead, honey; I’ll be in the bar.” – Me)
Hey, maybe MY tax guy should have used a giant mallet!
Many, many moons ago, I went to get my taxes done at one of those famous places. Like, THE most famous one. We had hit a couple of major milestones (buying our first house was the biggest) so it seemed the right time to graduate from the 1040 EZ, do-it-yourself form.
I didn’t know what to expect, but I didn’t expect THIS. My tax preparer was completely incompetent. He was so nervous he was literally trembling. He mumbled and stammered so badly I could barely understand him. And he gave terrible advice, such as “You live in Ohio but you work in Indiana? Oh, it will all even out.” Even I know that, if the city tax in Indiana is 0.9%, and in Cincinnati it’s 2.1%, it’s NOT going to “even out.”
But I was polite (shell shocked, really), paid the guy, and left. Then, I came back the next night and demanded that the branch manager re-do my forms. Believe me, there was a difference – a difference that would have led to penalties.
So, this article in the Consumerist wasn’t really shocking. It’s been 20 years since that incident. There have been so many advancements in software and technology (they have this thing called The Internet now) but one weakness remains: the human element.
An undercover investigation went, um, undercover at 29 different tax places and found all kinds of lapses in the system. Misusing earned income tax credits (EITC), ignoring side income, using incorrect forms, questionable deductions, not understanding the tax software, randomly filling in boxes to see if it magically resulted in less tax owed, and on and on. Sometimes these were honest mistakes…sometimes they weren’t.
Anyway, caution. If you think you are working with an incompetent or dishonest tax preparer, you owe it to yourself to do something about it. Or, you will owe it to the IRS, because if you end up getting caught, YOU’RE the one on the hook, not the tax preparer. So, check out the horror stories in the original piece, share any horror stories of your own at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!
My favorite line of the article: “When she went into a payday loan place to get her taxes done…” Yikes.
Favorite Easter memory: I was about five, and it snowed 6 inches the night before Easter (Ohio, y’all!) I came downstairs Easter morning and my father said, “Look outside!” I did, and I saw giant bunny prints in the snow leading from the street to the house. I was thrilled. It took me YEARS to realize that it had been my dad in his size-13 construction boots, heels-in/toes-out, who had made the footprints. By then, I was 19, and hadn’t been into Easter baskets for over a year.
Simple pleasures, right? And I wonder if that has been lost. That commercial on now – is it Sears? Where the kids run downstairs on Easter morning to find TWO BRAND-NEW BIKES!!! Bikes? I was lucky to get a hollow chocolate bunny! Kids these days…
As Americans, we do holidays big, even when (especially when) we can’t afford it. So let’s take a look at Easter Spending by the Numbers 2015!
$16.4 Billion: Total Easter spending. (Up half a Bill from last year)
$140: Average Americans will spend on Easter (up $3)
86%: Will have a special dinner, and spend $5 Billion, or $62 per household
87% will buy candy, and spend $2 Billion, or $28 per household
$2.4 Billion: Spent on gifts, or $47 per household
$1 Billion: Spent on Flowers, or $32 per household
$1 Billion: Spent on decorations, or $28 per household
$700MM: Spent on cards, or $17 per household
$61.00: Spent on Easter clothes per household
Well, that’s the tale of the (register) tape for this year. While we’re at it, let’s not forget that Easter (and Passover!) is a very important religious holiday for many millions of folks. However you spend it, at church, temple, with family or friends, we hope it’s GREAT. Happy Easter and Chag Sameach from MindField Online! Share your weekend plans with us over at our Facebook page!
We talked last week about people’s favorite fast food joints, with Chick fil A coming in at #1, and Hardee’s at #20. Here is the flip side. An article in Business Insider reports on a survey done by Morgan Stanley asking folks, “If you have stopped going to a certain fast food place, or you’re thinking about quitting…Why?” The answers ranged from Too Expensive, to Quality Going Downhill, to Eating Healthier, and so on. See if any of these sound familiar to you…
Now, these are subjective, personal opinions. They don’t always reflect facts on the ground. For more on that, read this piece about how Millennials gripe and complain and disparage McD’s…but they eat there far more than any other place! Anyway, lots more at the original piece, so check it out!
So, how about you? Have you cut back on fast food? Any place in particular? Why? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!
Pretty much everybody stresses about their personal finances to some degree. These days, it’s only natural to wonder how you would cope if you or your spouse lost a job, had a big medical expense, etc.
Figuring out where you stand in your personal finances may not change any facts on the ground. You may not like the result, but it can help erase the uncertainty and maybe help you focus on solutions.
So, have YOU done an inventory like this? Did it help you focus and make some changes? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!
A big study just came out. It interviewed “10,000 U.S. consumers to rate their recent interactions with 293 companies across 20 industries and then evaluated their experiences across three dimensions: success, effort, and emotion.”
Who are the big winners? Grocery stores, as a whole, get the highest marks. Publix takes the top spot. I have to say, I do like the overall vibe of Publix, but MAN! That experience comes at a high price! Interestingly, the grocery store Aldi also placed highly. Um, has Aldi changed? I remember it as the bare-bones, no-frills store that carries all the foreign knock-offs of your favorite products, e.g., the detergent in the orange box is called “Surf” instead of “Tide.” Must be a price thing? I can see how that would score these days!
Other achievers, getting positive ratings, include fast food, retailers, parcel delivery services, and banks. Meanwhile, Internet service providers, TV service providers, and health plans received “poor” ratings.
As for “movers,” companies that have improved or gotten worse, Residence Inn, US Cellular, and JetBlue Airlines moved up, while Subaru dealers, TD Ameritrade, and Buick dealers went down.
How about you? What do you look for in a retailer? How do you define customer satisfaction? Who’s at the top of YOUR list? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!
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Everybody has at least a little anxiety about retirement. Specifically, will we have enough money to get by? Many of us (me) don’t like to think about these things. Many of us (me) put off those icky decisions. But you (I) can’t put them off forever. And the sooner we start making good financial decisions, and taking action, the better off we will be.
